Rowing and Track Athletics (extract)

The jumps and the Pole-Vault 373 jump of 23 feet 7-f inches. At the national cham– pionships W. Halpin, A. T. Copeland, and C. S. Reber had all cleared over 2 3 feet, but none of them had equalled the 23 feet 7 inches with which Prinstein won the national championship in this same year. That human kangaroo, Kranzlein of Pennsylvania, entered the game in the following spring with his Mott Haven leap of 24 feet 41 inches and established the present intercollegiate record. This seemed a pretty safe record, but a a non-collegiate amateur Prinstein managed, at Philadelphia, on April 28, I 900, to surpass even this extraordinary leap, and with a jump of 24 feet 7% inches set a new record for the world. This record has since been surpassed by the Irish jumper, P. ]. O'Connor, with his 24 feet I1-! inches. The pole-vault may, perhaps, be appropriately included among the jumping events, although it has nothing in common with the -•other jumps except that it involves the clearing of a bar. It is one of the most picturesque of all track sports, and invariably excites the awe and astonishment of the gentler portion of the gallery. And it is, indeed, not without its dangers ; there is always the possibility of a fall, and if the pole breaks, as occasionally happens, the athlete entertains the agreeable prospect of being impaled on the splin– tered end. On the other hand, it is a game